Who Controls a Large Group Interactive?

For exhibitions that will be busy, we often avoid planning interactives meant for one visitor at a time. Single-visitor experiences can’t serve enough people to be efficient. And single-person interactivity is what we all do all day anyway.

So we plan for the opposite: large group interactivity. But one of the questions is always: who controls it?

Here are three possibilities. Pick what works for you.

A. Large Group Experience, Single Person Control
Imagine a media wall with a single control console. Single control should never be total control. A jukebox is one approach: pick a option you’d like to see, and when it comes up, everyone sees it.

B. Large Group Experience, Small Group Control
Imagine a touch table with a single flowing visual across it. But in actuality it’s divided into 4, 8, or 12 zones controlled separately. For every user, 2-3 look on. This has many advantages.

C. Large Group Experience, Large Group Control
Imagine a dance floor that reacts to any footstep with light. The more dancers, the more lights. The downside is what happens when there is only one person there.

Here’s the thing:
Who controls a large group interactive? Choosing your answer in advance will save a lot of backtracking.

Warmly,
Jonathan